Woodhouse Grove smartphone app gets off to a five-star start (From Wharfedale Observer)

Woodhouse Grove smartphone app gets off to a five-star start

10:00am Tuesday 23rd October 2012 in Local news By Amanda Greaves

A game developed for smartphones by a group of sixthformers is getting off the ground with a steady flow of downloads around the world.

Limefish Gaming’s debut app for iPhone, Fatball Fury, has been released via the official Apple App store. And its teenage developers, including an Ilkley resident, and promoters are closely following its success.

The company was set up by a group of aspiring young entrepreneurs from Woodhouse Grove School in Apperley Bridge. The development and marketing of the game has already given them a realistic taste of the business world.

The game is based on steering a brightly-coloured 3D bird around various obstacles, such as trees and buildings, in search of fatballs to replenish its energy.

Users are declaring the game ‘addictive’, and it gained a five-star user rating within seven days of its release.

Head of operations, Ben Padgett, of Ilkley, said: “We have had numerous battles along the way to get to this stage – all have delayed the app being released until now.

“We managed the successful negotiation of an advertisement deal, and the difficulty of communicating with people from different time zones and cultures.”

He added: “The experience gained from this ordeal was very useful for all within the group, as it gave us first-hand experience of running a business before we hopefully head off to university next year.”

Woodhouse Grove, and in particular its business teachers, have been providing help for the young businessmen.

Aside from getting to grips with promoting their game to a major business, the fledgling company quickly had to come to terms with copyright issues.

They originally planned to name the game Fatball Frenzy, but because of difficulties with the copyright of the name, had to change it to Fatball Fury.

The app, which can be played on iPhones, iPads and iPods, is initially free to download, but users who want to play an upgraded version of the game download it for a fee.

Visit limefishgaming.com for more information.